About Selby & Friends

Selby & Friends presents “chamber music at its best” (SMH) with six subscription seasons around Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Turramurra and the Southern Highlands, each presented five times per year. Australian pianist Kathryn Selby, AM, created the concert series in 2007 and her guest artists include many of the finest solo and ensemble performers from Australia and around the world. The series is widely considered “world class” and of “the highest possible level of performance” with many hailing Ms Selby as not only an “entrepreneurial force” but amongst the finest of Australian artists. She was awarded the ‘AM’ as part of the Australia Day Honours, 2013.

Selby & Friends originally began as a series of concerts introducing music to children presented by Kathryn Selby at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney with a second series for general audiences in the evening, supported by IBM Australia from 1988-1993. Re-established in 2007 as a new, nationally touring series with Selby and invited guest artists, Selby & Friends has continued to present concerts of the highest quality with stunning reviews and a large and loyal audience. ABC Classic FM and the MBS network record for broadcast each tour program.

Selby & Friends is unique in that it was amongst the first in Australia to feature the artists speaking directly from the stage about their personal experiences, historical and amusing anecdotes, creating an intimate and long-lasting connection with audience members that is reflected in the consistent loyalty of returning patrons. Selby & Friends is also unique in that it is the only Australian series to mentor brilliant young Australians in a touring capacity so as to learn from within an ensemble with artists older and more experienced. Selby & Friends is also unique in that it was the first Australian series to encourage children to learn about chamber music by inviting kids 14 and under to attend the concerts for free.

Our goals are to present memorable experiences with world-class events, to support young people in a learning capacity and to help them reach their professional potential, and to support Australia’s cultural life as a vital balancing element within strong communities. To that end we have been extremely successful as our strong subscriber base, mentoring programs and consistently stunning reviews from audience and critics alike (and our popularity with national radio broadcasters) will attest.

Artistic Director Kathryn Selby announces the 2018 Season with great anticipation. "I am delighted to announce details of our exciting 2018 season with another splendid ensemble of artists with whom I have had the pleasure to work in past seasons and two new brilliant guests who join S&F for the first time. Returning as part of our brilliant artistic line-up are stunning violinists Natalie Chee and Andrew Haveron, and popular, charismatic cellists Umberto Clerici, Clancy Newman and Julian Smiles. Also returning in 2018 is the dynamic Finnish duo of Vesa-Matti Leppänen and Timo-Veikko Valve whose finely wrought sense of humour competes only with their incredible virtuosity and sensitivity.

Joining our ensemble for the first time in 2018 is renowned violin virtuoso Alexandre Da Cost-Graveline who currently splits his time between an international solo career and leading the string department at WAAPA in Perth. Also new to S&F in 2018 is young Australian clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff who joins returning young star, violinist Grace Clifford as part of our program to support outstanding young Australians on their professional journey.

We venture into new territory with two different venues in 2018 – in Melbourne at Methodist Ladies’ College’s Tatoulis Auditorium in Kew and the NSW Southern Highlands with both Mittagong Playhouse and Bowral Memorial Hall – all accommodate larger audiences whilst continuing our desire for intimacy and inclusion.

We invite you to celebrate the 2018 season with us!

Reviews

"It's a commonplace that Selby and Friends always deliver the goods at a high standard, but even by that measure, the Proud Folk concert in their third tour of the year was a cracker." - Adelaide Advertiser 2017

"As music with nowhere to hide, this is tricky stuff indeed, but these three players delivered a blockbuster performance that had the audience literally cheering." - Limelight Magazine 2017

"Yesterday, in the hands of Selby and her latest friends, cellist Clancy Newman and violinist Grace Clifford, I think I heard Dvorak’s quirky, lumpy, gushy, graceful trio as I’ve never heard it before. This was the real thing." - SMH 2017

“This was first-class chamber music from all involved, with scarcely a moment of insecurity or incoherence. It is to Selby’s credit that she is able to employ an ever-changing ensemble of musicians, whilst maintaining a symbiosis that most established piano trios would kill for. There are few musicians in the country who could achieve this so consistently.” - Dylan Henderson, Limelight, June 2016

“The successful blend and closeness Selby achieves with her trio performers despite them being guests and not a permanent ensemble is always to be greatly admired.” - Paul Nolan, Arts Hub, April 2016

“Put all … elements of this night together and you had a solid taste of Beethoven’s accomplishment across a productive span of 22 years, delivered with remarkably few slips and an impressive breadth of interpretative insight.” – Clive O’Connell, September 2016

"… At every point, this trio [Park, Newman, Selby] showed their partnership was far from an ad hoc arrangement but a true alliance of like minds in a congenial collegiality of top-notch quality.” – Clive O’Connell, April 2016

“In her concert tours Kathryn Selby has created a space in which the audience experiences living music introduced with personal reflections on the repertoire by each of the performers. It is a unique intimacy, and the consistently full houses she plays to are a testament to the wise choice of presentation for her chamber music concerts.” – Jennifer Gall, Canberra Times, February 2015

“This is exactly what chamber music is meant to be: intimate, conversational, captivating, the music of friends, and a thoroughly enjoyable, personal experience. Kathryn Selby, with friends like these, we can’t wait for the 2014 season.’ – Gordon Forester, GLAMAdelaide, November 2013

“It is a measure of the spell cast by these performers that the transition from second to third movement, and from third to fourth, passed with scarcely a noise from the auditorium; just the sound of 1000 people holding their breaths. This is chamber music at its best. Hear them if you can.” – Harriet Cunningham, SMH, July 2013